This invention relates to golf club grips and golf clubs incorporating such grips. The invention is particularly concerned with a golf club grip which in an extremely simple way transforms an ordinary straight-shafted golf club into one displaying the desirable characteristics referred to in prior Australian application for Patent No. 81449/75 or in the specification of lapsed application for Australian Patent No. 255,080. The characteristic in question is that the axis of the hand-grip portion of the club is skewed toward what is known as the "sweet-spot" of the driving face of the club.
Hitherto one prior expedient arranging for the mentioned desirable characteristic has involved putting a bend in the club shaft, but this is objectionable, except in putters, because it is contrary to the established rules for the game of golf and in any event involves an extra forging operation in the manufacture of the club shaft.
Another prior expedient has been to provide a golf club grip with an axially-straight skewed bore able to receive the straight end-portion of a club shaft, as illustrated in Australian design registration No. 066,866. This expedient has proved largely satisfactory in practice but nevertheless is open to minor objection in several respects. For example, it involves special non-symmetrical shaping of the grip end-portion adjacent the open end of the bore. Moreover, it does not enable only a longitudinal portion of the grip to be axially aligned with the sweet-spot as may be required by some players who may, in the case of right-handed players, require only that outer end portion of the grip actually grasped by the left hand to be so axially oriented.
By the present invention, the external shaping of the grip, as molded, may be totally symmetrical; also, only the outer end portion of the grip which is actually grasped by the hands need be disposed so that its axis will be directed toward the sweet-spot.
A further advantage due to the present invention, in comparison to a grip which is straightly skew-bored for substantially the full length of the grip, is that the required degree of skew offset can be achieved without making the grip exterior any larger than is normal for ordinary hand-gripping purposes. This is of some importance because, if the grip is to any extent larger in the "feel" than is customary, many players tend to make shots incorrectly.